The Ultimate Guide for Cleaning Your Home

“The magic thing about home is that it feels good to leave, and it feels even better to come back” - Wendy Wunder
Home is the place we long for after a day long work or a long planned trip! It is the second best place to heaven, should say! A clean home is the most welcoming thing for everyone. Imagine, you return from home and find a huge pile of mess in the living room. Don’t you deserve something better?
House cleaning is not an enjoyable task for many. But, believe it or not, it is the most satisfying task ever. The result is right in front of your eyes!
Where do we start?Cleaning is so much fun when you involve everyone in the family. This makes everyone be responsible for the things they have at home.
1. Things back in its placeAny cleaning task should start with putting the right thing in the right place. This would avoid a lot of confusion and makes your home clutter free. You could relate to this more if you have a young child at home. Putting things back to its place would start by,

1. Putting the toys back to the toy basket
2. Arranging the newspapers & magazines
3. Arranging the shoe rack
4. Putting the laundry clothes to the basket. (if not done)

2. DustingDusting is not something anyone would like to do. But, a monthly dusting task would save you a lot of time. Dusting, if not done regularly would make your home look messy. It would also turn out to be an unhealthy ambiance. For this purpose, dusting your home could be categorised as follows

1. Daily dusting: This would involve, dusting the couch, living room TV units, wall shelf. Just wipe down every day with a cotton cloth.
2. Weekly: Dusting the mattress and changing the covers.
3. Monthly: Clearing the cobwebs, dusting the vents, window panes, doors, fans and lights

3. Kitchen CabinetsHow often do you have to clean the kitchen cabinets? It is up to you. If you use the kitchen properly, believe me, you need to clean the cabinets only once a month. With a weekly wipe on the doors you can maintain the rest intact for one month. For this, keep these points in mind

1. If you have planned your modular kitchen well, then things would be ergonomically placed. Use the kitchen mindfully: Put things back in its place to avoid chaos and this would also help in saving a lot of your time. Having done this, you know where exactly things are
2. Do not stock too much of groceries in your kitchen. You can buy whatever you need at the beginning of the month. And before buying any new supplies, check for what you already have and also the expiry dates.

• DIY Cleaning Tip For Kitchen

To clean the kitchen counters, mix 4-5 drops of liquid dish soap in one liter of water. Add this to an old spray can. Use this spray on the kitchen counters as well as the counter tops and wipe down with the help of a cotton cloth. This solution helps in getting the oil deposits out.
4. RefrigeratorCleaning refrigerators every week would help you save a lot of time. You can clear out the leftover food items and clean the trays every week. Once in a month clean the fridge completely.

• Tip for Cleaning your fridge

Use 1 tbsp baking soda or lemon juice in one liter of water to wipe down the fridge. This would get rid of the odour.
5. Laundry & WardrobeAs a routine, do the laundry routine everyday and have an extra load during the weekends. The weekend extra wash would include the bedsheets and the pillow covers. Whereas, the everyday routine would include your everyday wears. If you have a pile to be hand washed, have it in a separate basket, which could be postponed to weekends as well.
Cushion covers and curtains could be washed once in every six months.
6. BathroomOne of the most important places in your house. This involves a good amount of time. Clean the bathroom floor, wash basin and WC everyday with the help of a bathroom floor cleaner and a toilet cleaner. For wash basins you can use a mild soap powder.

• DIY Cleaning Solution for Bathrooms

Baking soda 1 cup, vinegar (white) 1 ½ tbsp, water ¼ cup and liquid soap ¼ cup. Mix all these in a bowl. Use a scrubber to clean the bathroom floor and also the WC with this baking soda solution. This helps in getting rid of the scales in the bathroom floor and the toilet. Do not forget to wear your gloves!

• Bathroom walls

Add a few drops of floor cleaning liquid to one liter water, add this to a used spray bottle. You can use this simple solution to wipe down the bathroom walls.

Source: Google images

7. WallsWalls get very dirty. Worse if it is painted in white or half white. As walls mostly get painted in neutral colours, you can’t help it. The places under the switches and the kids doodle on the walls look bad if not cleaned regularly.

• DIY Tip for Cleaning the Walls

To clean the walls use a sponge and some baking powder. In a sponge, sprinkle some baking powder and some water. Wipe on the dirty walls, leave it for five minutes. Use another sponge, dip it in water wipe down the places. This would instantly clean up the walls without taking out the paint.

Source: http://www.blog.myiconichome.com/home-decor/diy-cleaning-project-sparkly-clean-home/

Cleaning Routine for everyday

1. As soon as you get up, make your bed. This would take roughly ten minutes. But it is really worth it.
2. Before getting to your kitchen, turn on the washing machine. Once you are done with the kitchen chores, the clothes would be done.
3. As soon as you finish cooking, clean up the kitchen counter top.
4. Clean the bathrooms before taking bath.
5. Load the dishwasher or if you have a domestic help, arrange all the used vessels in the sink. You can add some water to the used vessels which would speed up the cleaning process
6. By this time your washing machine would be done, so it's time to dry the clothes
7. Floor - sweeping the floor after the days work is the next
8. And the last thing would be folding the dried clothes

Cleaning is the most tiring task in the world. But, to make our place the best place to live, we have to make it an everyday practice. This would help us have a clutter free and clean ambiance.
Guest Post by Savitha Sampath:Savitha is from Chennai and works as a freelance content writer for various blogs.